21/07/2017

How to LFG in SWTOR, 2017 Edition

The other day it came to my attention that people are apparently still finding my post "How to Successfully LFG in SWTOR" via Google. This is one of the few guides I've written on this blog, but while some of the things described in it still apply, others have become quite outdated with the introduction of level sync and such. Re-reading my own post, I had actually almost forgotten about how EV and KP used to only be in the group finder from level 50-54, or how many pugs wouldn't do a full run of any given operation because the weekly quest only required you to kill things up to the third or fourth boss. Good times.

Anyway, I thought it might be worthwhile to rewrite this guide to provide a more up-to-date source of information for curious new players. I might do some copy and pasting from the old post, but many things have changed!

First off, there are three major types of PvE group content in the game right now:

- Flashpoints are SWTOR's equivalent of what's called "dungeons" in many other MMOs, instanced group content designed for a group of a fixed size, four players in this case. The "default" group setup is one tank, one healer and two damage dealers, however Bioware has greatly simplified the easy versions of most flashpoints to not require a fixed group setup anymore and to be level neutral as well. So you could run them with four level fifteen damage dealers or four max-level healers if you wanted to... though I wouldn't necessarily recommend either setup. The harder versions still require a traditional trinity group.

- Uprisings are sort of similar to flashpoints but only available at level 70 as they are supposed to take place after the story of Knights of the Eternal Throne (the expansion that increased the level cap from 65 to 70). There are fewer of them and they are somewhat shorter, with fewer trash pulls between bosses and a love for endless waves of weak adds for you to AoE down. Like with flashpoints, the easiest difficulty is supposed to be doable with any group composition.

- Operations are SWTOR's raids and each one can be done with eight or sixteen people (you can choose the group size). Both formats require two tanks, while the ideal number of healers doubles from two to four in 16-man.

There are other reasons why you might want to group up with other players, but let's focus on these three game modes first.

Flashpoints

It's worth noting that while this is a guide to grouping, and flashpoints were primarily designed to be group content, many of the more story-heavy ones have been given a solo mode in the recent past, so if you just want to see what they are about and other people scare you, you do have the option to go in alone. An all-powerful droid will accompany you and will tank, dps and heal for you all at once, so that you can lean back and /dance throughout the entire thing if you want to. Personally I find that pretty boring, but to each their own.

Flashpoints come in three different settings: There is the solo mode mentioned above, also called story mode, then there is veteran (hard) mode, and finally there is master (nightmare) mode. This naming convention is a bit misleading because veteran mode isn't actually that hard, it's actually the "story mode" for groups, but I guess someone at Bioware thought that this was too confusing so it became veteran instead. Don't let the nomenclature scare you off in any case.

Veteran mode flashpoints open up at level 10, at which point you only have access to your faction's first flashpoint for five levels (the Esseles for Republic and the Black Talon for Imperials), then at 15 they disappear from your group finder list (though you can still walk in directly if you want) and all the rest opens up. The fact that all these flashpoints are accessible and rewarding for players from level 15 all the way up to the cap has greatly increased their replayability and the speed at which you can get groups for them, but be warned that many of them are quite story-heavy and if you jump into the full random selection at a low level you are likely to accidentally spoil and/or confuse yourself by watching later story events unfold before you've actually played the main game up to that point.

Aside from being level-neutral, veteran flashpoints are also role-neutral, so the group finder will put the first four people in the queue into a group together regardless of their role. You will get a pop-up to ask you to accept the group that has been formed, and this is a good opportunity to decline if the group setup is something manic like four tanks or three healers. As people move through the queue quite quickly, waiting a couple of minutes before re-queuing is usually enough to get something better. Pops are very quick on large servers (often instant for me) and still quite fast on smaller ones - note that you only get grouped with people from your server, there is no cross-server grouping in SWTOR.

If you are feeling timid about your performance, rejecting a group with too many low-levels might also be a consideration. SWTOR's level syncing works pretty well, but there's still a noticeable difference in terms of difficulty between going in with a full group of level 30s or having one or more level 70s in the party. There is no punishment for rejecting a group at the assembly stage, but if you quit after accepting the group, you will receive a debuff that will prevent you from queuing again for a little while. Also don't forget to select your preferred roles before queuing up! It can be quite terrifying to end up being marked as a tank or healer when you didn't really mean to play either of those roles.

Master mode flashpoints, which are the real "hardmodes" and not really nightmare-ish in difficulty, have longer queues since they require a traditional group setup of tank, healer and two dps. They are still reasonably popular though as they are quite rewarding. They are not completely level-neutral but become accessible from level 50. How can a level 50 do hard content with level 70s, you might ask? The same way all the different levels can play together on veteran mode, via something called "bolster", which increases everyone's level and stats to a minimum max-level baseline. It works pretty well actually, and I've successfully healed many a master mode flashpoint with a tank who wasn't even level capped yet. They are just a little bit more squishy than normal.

Uprisings

Uprisings don't have solo modes (and I don't think they need them either as not much story is happening in any of them), so here the naming convention actually makes sense: story mode is the (supposedly) easy one that can be done with a role-neutral group, veteran mode is the hard(er) one that requires a trinity setup, and nightmare mode is nightmare-ish (here and there, some uprisings are easier than others). Only the first two difficulties can be found in the group finder, but trust me, you wouldn't want to try the hardest one with anything but a group of friends anyway.

Due to being limited to level 70, queues for uprisings are a bit longer than for flashpoints, even for the role-neutral story mode. Also, some of the story modes are actually a real pain without a healer. You have been warned.

Operations

Like hardmode flashpoints, operations are accessible from level 50 onwards in story mode at least, and people get bolstered in them. So don't worry about bringing your level 50 alts in crappy levelling greens along for a ride, they'll be able to pull their weight just fine.

Only story mode operations are available through the group finder, only in 8-man size (they tried to upgrade it to 16-man one time and it literally crashed the servers) and only one at a time (the available operation rotates once a day; you can see it on the group finder interface). But according to general opinion nobody really uses the group finder to actually build operations groups anyway, everyone just uses general chat on the fleet to put a group together manually and then everyone queues up together to get the reward for using the group finder.

This is... mostly true. I don't know what it's like on other servers, but on The Red Eclipse at least I have actually gotten into groups assembled directly through the group finder a couple of times, after sitting in the queue for a moderate amount of time during prime time. The problem from my experience is that such groups are usually not what you'd call successful. I once got a group for Ravagers and it fell apart on the first boss because we hit the enrage with her still at half health. Another time I got a group for Eternity Vault that could barely kill the first boss and then repeatedly wiped on Gharj's enrage before falling apart. Wait, Gharj has an enrage? Yeah. I don't say that to diss anyone, but I guess it makes sense that somewhat clueless players would be more likely to just queue up for things via the interface instead of trying to form a group manually, which means that the quality of these groups is distinctly below average when they do happen.

So yeah, in general you are better off keeping an eye on general chat and responding to a LFG request. For story modes people usually don't care if you're experienced or not, as long as you are able to communicate and follow basic instructions, and thanks to bolster, gear isn't a concern.

The Interface

I've been saying all these things about "the group finder" without even explaining what it is. You access it through the little button next to your mini map that looks like three people. At level 70, the Galactic Command interface (Ctrl+G) also serves as a prettified group finder, but it provides fewer options and less information. So for example if you click on the operations icon, it will queue you for the currently featured operation, but you won't know what it actually is without checking the "proper" group finder window. Or if you want to queue for an uprising through the Galactic Command window, it will always be a random one, you can only choose a specific one through the normal group finder interface. Slightly confusing, I know.

It's also worth noting that unlike group finders in some other games, SWTOR's does not provide you with an estimate of how long you are likely to have to wait, a timer for how long you've been in the queue, or any indication if you've made partial progress towards assembling a group and are only waiting for a tank now (as an example). You just have to press that "join queue" button and have faith. Unless you're queuing for veteran flashpoints or story mode uprisings, I wouldn't recommend just waiting around, best to get out there and do some quests in the meantime or something.

But what about...

Heroics? These used to be group content pre-4.0, but have been nerfed so hard that they are all easily soloable. That said, if you see other people in the area and want to group up, there's nothing stopping you. It's quite common that people just throw around group invites without even saying anything beforehand if they can see that you're obviously on the same quest, and then quietly leave again once they're done. It can be very beneficial in areas where spawns for kill quests are highly contested.

World bosses? There is so little incentive to do these these days, I honestly have no idea who does them and when. I reckon that groups must sometimes form in general chat on the planet they are on. Since the introduction of level sync, you can't overlevel and solo them anymore either.

Datacrons? Other quests? Difficult story chapters? There isn't really a big pool of public LFG-ers for these and if you are desperate for help I would recommend making a friend or finding a guild. You could always try asking in general chat as sometimes people don't mind helping out even a stranger if it doesn't take too long, but it can be very hit and miss whether someone even responds at all.

Did I forget anything important? Let me know in the comments and I might add it in! Got a question about finding groups in SWTOR? Happy to answer those in the comments as well.

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